His Beautiful Eyes
by Liaranne
Summary: A series of sporadically updated oneshots set in the family theme that is so often prevlaent in DP. Rated G, or K, now. Latest update: The Sister's Brother
1. His Beautiful Eyes

** His Beautiful Eyes**

by Liaranne

Summary: A DP Mother's Day ficlet. I hope you enjoy it. A plot bunny bit and rewarded me with this sweet little vignette, which with a bit of tweaking came out to exactly 1,000 words.

Rated: G

To Mom – for all you do, thanks. I love you.

* * *

Maddie Fenton sat on the loveseat in her living room, an old book of photographs sprawled across her lap. Jack was away – he was away, driving Jazz on a two-day trip for a college visit. Danny had left the house right after school that afternoon to meet up with his friends. That was about three o'clock.

It was now 11:45.

Danny had not been late before – just… this time, something felt wrong. Maddie turned another page in the album, but, lost in the moment, did not look at them. Not until one loose photograph spilled out of the book, off her lap and onto the floor.

Maddie sniffed, wiping the corners of her eyes with a tissue as she placed the album gently on the coffee table. She bent down to pick up the photograph, and was about to set it on top of the book, but something in it caught her attention.

She was lost in sapphire eyes. Slowly, very slowly, a smile lit her face.

And a proximity alarm blared throughout the Fenton household, bathing Maddie's tear-streaked face in a cruel crimson glow.

Ghosts… 

Maddie sprang into action, zipping up the hood of her characteristic blue suit, and grabbing her Fenton Bazooka, leaped out the front door…

To barrel into her son.

"Ow!" said Danny Fenton, as he tumbled down the steps.

"Danny!" Maddie said, relief coloring her words. "Are you ok? Where's the ghost! And do you know how late you are, young man?"

"Uh… I'm fine Mom, you just missed the ghost, I'm sorry I'm late – and I thought you turned that alarm off," he replied, a tad dazed from his spill.

"Oh, drat. Oh, your father turned it on before he took Jazz. He said it was fixed – we got it to stop blaring after you left for school – and he wants us safe, you know. Now, come inside and give me your excuse and then get straight to bed young man and I'll deal with you in the morning."

Danny sighed inwardly, wishing that just once that he could tell his mother the real reason she was late.

He made his excuses, and did go to bed. The proximity alarm would not stop blaring, so Maddie finally turned it off, much to Danny's relief. The shrill noise bothered him more than it seemed to bother anyone else in the family – though whether that was due to his abilities or simply a guilty conscience was debatable.

It was two minutes before midnight when Maddie slipped back into the couch. She reached for the album to put it away, and gave a sad little smile at the picture, taken in the hospital, of an hour-old baby in his mother's arms, his sapphire eyes shining as she beamed with weary pride.

Maddie put the book of photographs away, back onto the shelf, and went back upstairs.

She peeked into her son's room. He was soundly asleep, curled up beneath the sheets. His wild hair flung everywhere across the pillow as she studied his form in the light that spilled through the doorway from the hall. She could just barely make out the slow rise and fall of his chest – so shallow that if she did not know better, she would have sworn that he was not breathing at all.

She slipped out of the doorway and turned the hall light out, to take herself off to a restless night of tossing and turning.

It was almost three in the morning when she heard screaming.

She burst into Danny's room.

"No! NO! You can't do this!" he screamed, thrashing with his covers like they were an invisible enemy.

"Danny! Danny, wake up, it's a nightmare!" Maddie said, again bathed in the light from the hallway, which she had turned on as she went past.

"NO! I WON'T LET YOU!" he bellowed, and sat bolt upright.

If Maddie had not known any better, she might have believed that her son's eyes were glowing green as she looked right at them in the dark. It was probably just the light from the hall that distorted her vision.

"Danny, it's ok, it's all right," she soothed him, "It was just a nightmare."

She took him, and wrapped him in her arms, his head against her chest.

"Mom?" Danny managed to reply in his tired daze. "Mom? I dreamed that…" he caught himself before he said anything more, anything incriminating, and shivered at his nightmare.

"I know. You just had a nightmare, sweetie. It's all right, it was just a dream."

"Yeah. It was just a dream," he mimicried, his voice devoid of emotion. "Thanks, Mom," he added, with sincere love. "Thank you so much."

"It was nothing, dear. Now, will you be ok?"

He nodded, knowing that it was a lie, and watched as she left.

"No, Mom. It's not all right," his murmur was soft in the dark as the hall light flicked off, soft and sad. "It's not all right," he repeated, his voice turning to determination, "But I swear that I won't let it happen. Not while I'm alive."

And his eyes glowed green.

* * *

_"Hi, sweetie," a twenty-something Maddie Fenton said to the little boy she held in her arms, "Hi there. I'm your Mom."_

_He turned to her, his teeny little mouth working, tiny beady eyes squinched shut under the thick wet mass of dark hair that stuck to his head beneath the knit baby cap, his chubby arms the only other thing visible through the thick swaths of blue blanket._

_"__I love you," she whispered._

_He opened his eyes, finally, and looked at her for the first time._

_Maddie Fenton gasped, lost in wonder. Her son's eyes were beautiful. They were fragile, innocent, those baby blues, but she could tell, deep within, that they held an awe-inspiring future._

_"__I'm your Mom," she repeated in whispered wonder to those strong and fragile eyes. "I'm your Mom, Danny, and I'll protect you until the end of time."_


	2. Daddy's Little Girl

**Daddy's Little Girl**

by Liaranne

Semi-sequel/tie-in to **His Beautiful Eyes**, one-shot, Father's day fic.

To Dad: I love you. You need to get more rest, take less road trips, and not work yourself to death, you idiot, while at the same time not making our lives a misery with the "projects" you do when you have energy, but I love you all the same. (The "projects" are often without notice, without need, and based off random comments he overhears from the rest of the family and thinks he needs to do ASAP but doesn't always think through. It would be nice if he consulted people…) I really do love you, Dad.

* * *

Jack Fenton shifted in his seat and adjusted his tie.

He did not want to be here.

Jazz had wanted to go on a college visit, and he had wanted more time with her, so he offered. He was now in the lobby of a college campus dressed rather normally for once under his daughter's insistence.

And Jazz was enthralled.

Jack held his own, just barely, all through the visit, somehow managing to act with a semblance of normality for once as he watched his daughter grow more and more in love with the school.

* * *

"_Hey, sweetie," Jack said to his daughter as he sat down on her bed. The eight-year-old girl was home sick from school. "How are you feeling?"_

"_My stomach still hurts, Daddy," the girl said softly._

"_Here, your mom said to drink this," he said, setting a plastic cup of ginger ale on her nightstand in front of her unicorn lamp. "Is there anything else you need, princess?"_

"_Daddy? Will you tell me a story?" she asked._

"_Sure, sweetie. Sure I will."

* * *

_

Jack smiled sadly as his daughter clamored into the passenger seat of the Fenton RV. He knew that she would grow up… he just had not expected it to happen so _fast_.

He started the RV, and headed home.

* * *

_He told the story to his little girl as she sipped that cup of ginger ale, her eyes slowly drooping into slumber_

"_There once was a king who ruled a mighty and powerful kingdom, and he had many treasures. But the greatest of his treasures was his only daughter, his oldest child and most precious and precocious little jewel. She had red hair-" and he reached over and rubbed Jazz's head, "and blue green eyes," and Jazz giggled into the cup, "and she was his favorite little girl."_

"_But little girls grow up," Jack continued, "and one day, the king noticed that she had blossomed into an amazing young woman."

* * *

_

Jack looked at his daughter as they drove home in the dark, the headlights from the cars on the highway shedding their fickle light across her face. She was awake, for now, but quickly drifting off to sleep with a smile.

* * *

"_What happened to her, Daddy?"_

"_Well, the little girl wanted more in her life than to hang around her father's old castle all day. She found that she had outgrown it, and that it was time to move on."_

"_And what did the king do, Daddy?"_

"_The king was sad about this. He didn't want to let go of his little girl. In his eyes, she was still the child that he had held in his arms and told stories to when she was sick, just like you."_

"_But she was big now! She did not need him to take care of her, Daddy. Why should he be sad?"

* * *

_

Jack glanced over again at his daughter. She had drifted off into sleep as they drove through a better section of highway, the street lamps that lined the road shedding their shifting golden light across her soft face, almost fragile in its slumber.

* * *

"_He was sad because he still needed her, sweetie. He didn't want his little girl to grow up so fast, he wanted to hold on to her still."_

"_But if she was ready, and he knew it, why wouldn't he let her go?" she asked, half-into dreamland._

"_Because he loved her, and he knew that the world out there was a tough one, and he did not want her to get hurt."_

"_But that's selfish! She would have to go anyway!"_

"_Yes, she would, someday, he just did not want it to come so soon."_

_Maddie's voice drifted up into the open door. "Jack? I need a hand, where are you?"_

"_Coming, dear!" he yelled back. "I have to go, sweetie," he told his daughter, "Be good and get your rest."_

"_But the story," she protested "You haven't finished it."_

_He smiled. "Not all stories end," he said, "This one we'll continue another time, I promise."_

_And he kissed her head, took the empty cup from her hand, and told her to sleep._

"_Daddy?" he almost missed her words as she buried her face in her pillow. He paused at the door._

"_Yes, princess?"_

"_I'll always be your little girl, won't I?"_

"_Yes, princess," he smiled, "Now, get your rest and get better."_

_And Jazz smiled, and slept.

* * *

_

Jazz woke up as they pulled into Amity Park. "Daddy? Where are we?"

"We're almost home, princess."

"Good," she smiled, and drifted back into slumber.

And Jack looked at his daughter, and knew that she would always be daddy's little girl.


	3. The Sister's Brother

**A/N: **Okay, okay... I'm done trying to call this a one-shot. From now on, I'm calling it "A series of loosely-connected one-shots to be written and updated at sporadic times but all dealing on the family themes that are prevlant in DP". Okay?

Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed!

* * *

**The Sister's Brother**

He struggled back to his feet, wiping the blood from his split lip off of his chin, panting slightly, and collapsed back onto his knees.

"Why are you hurting him!" a young voice shouted, confused and hurt.

The enemy, the ghost, turned from the boy to stare at the girl before him, the girl who had been on the tire swing just a few moments before.

"Why are you hurting my brother?" she yelled again, her words angry, and she clenched her fists and glared at the spirit before her.

The ghost, a giant green gorilla with a fanged grin, snarled at her, and charged.

"NO!" the boy yelled, and struggled back to his feet. "Kimberly, RUN!"

The dark-skinned eight-year-old stared at the charging beast in bewildered surprise, no longer sure of what to do, frozen like a deer in the headlights.

The boy realized that he would not make it in time. The ghost would hurt his sister. He fell again, exhausted, glasses tumbling off his face and onto the bare earth, and wondered why he had tried to take this guy down on his own.

Kimberly.

It was because of Kimberly. His sister. His sister, who was about to be run down before his eyes because he had to be a good brother and take her to the playground for a few minutes, because he had to be embarrassed and not call his friends for help when he saw the ghost, like he should have done, and all he could do was look up from the ground as a glowing green gorilla ran her down.

_Swoop!_

She was gone, before his eyes, and the ghost charged into nothing but air.

"Hey, Kong! Guess what? You aren't king any more!" a voice shouted as a swirling blue light engulfed the gorilla.

A voice that was all too familiar.

"Hey, man. You okay?" the same voice asked.

The boy picked his glasses up and put them back on his face, and took his red baseball cap off his head, banged the dust out, and adjusted it back into its accustomed position.

"Yeah, Danny. I'm okay. Nothing's broken."

His words were short.

"Okay, well, I'm just going to try to find this girl's family and get her home. She's scared out of her wits. I guess she got lost when the ghost showed up."

Tucker looked up at his best friend, whose green eyes were treating this sort of like it was business as usual. The girl was nowhere in sight.

"Hey, are you sure you're okay, Tucker? That looks like a nasty cut, there."

He ignored the voice, looking back behind his friend, to focus on a tree just a few feet away. She was in it, in the second lowest branch, holding on, about eight feet off the ground.

"Just get her out of the tree before she falls, man," he said.

Danny looked at Tucker. This was not like his friend at all. The techno-geek's eyes were still stuck fast to the girl on the tree.

When Danny did not answer, Tucker took matters into his own hands and walked over to the tree.

Her eyes were squeezed tight, and she was holding onto the tree for the sake of life itself.

"Kim?" the boy's voice called her. "Kimmie? Are you okay?"

He hoisted himself up onto the first branch, carefully. The tree shook, and the girl clung harder. Her eyes were closed.

"Kim, it's just me. Okay? It's just me, sis."

"T- er," Danny caught himself, "Um… sir? What's going on?"

"She's my sister. Kimberly. You've heard my mom go off on her, haven't you?" was the reply from the red-capped boy, bitterness seeping into his tone.

He turned back to the girl before his friend could respond.

"Hey, Kim. It's okay. For real. See? I'm right here. Come on down," the bitterness had gone, melted into kindness like a single snowflake in July.

The dark girl shook her head some more.

Tucker knew what he had to do, even if he did not really want to.

He turned to Danny.

"A little help, here? You put her up there."

"No problem." Danny Phantom flew up, and deftly lifted the girl out of the tree.

She screamed until he set her back onto the ground, where she fell, gasping.

"Kimber?" Tucker rushed over, "Kim, it's okay. It's okay."

Danny stood there, feeling like an unnecessary wheel in this conversation, too surprised to do anything about it.

This was Kimberly. Tucker's sister. Tucker's younger sister who went to the special school on that scholarship, even though she was something like eight or nine years old. The one Tucker's mom talked about a lot, especially to adults.

The one Tucker was jealous of.

But here he was, cradling her as she threw up her lunch, holding her head, reassuring her that everything was all right, that she was safe, she was on the ground, see? Nothing bad was going to happen to her, not while he was there. Not while he was there. No, he was here, and everything would be safe.

"Hey, what's the square root of 1296?" Tucker asked the girl in his arms.

"Thirty six," came the reply, with a giggle.

"See, there's that girl I know. There's my girl." He brushed the hair out of her face.

Then, he looked up at his best friend, embarrassed.

Danny was looking at him in something akin to shock.

"She's scared of heights," Tucker explained. "She almost fell from the roof of our house when she was little. It's a long story."

Danny nodded. "I better get going, I guess… She'll be okay?"

"Yeah, man. I'll get her home. Hey… thanks."

"Yeah. Well, I'll see you."

Danny Phantom flew off into the evening air.

* * *

Late that night, in a household in Amity Park, a door creaked open. 

"No… no! I won't let it happen. I WON'T!"

She could hear his muffled screams, his fears, his dreams shouted into his pillow.

She slunk into his room, leaving the door open, causing the light from the hall to flow onto his bedroom floor in front of his bed.

Light shone from the window as well; it was open, a breeze ruffling the curtains, the occasional sound of a car passing by drifting in from the street below with the undertones of the loud party three blocks over a consistent drone. The liquid gold from the streetlamp spilled onto the wall, splashing onto a mirror to reflect onto the bed, bathing the contorted, dreaming face and messy black hair.

"No… no. Nooo…"

She walked over to him, he was so tense, and his fists were clenched in fear.

She remembered how he used to dream of the monsters in his closet. How he screamed at night, often waking their mother, but also waking her.

But then came the night that he did not scream. Or perhaps he did, and no one had awoken. She had felt something in her room, heard a small voice call her name.

The explanation that he had had a bad dream, and could she maybe get him a drink of water? The not asking, like she wanted to, why he did not go to mom, but to her, and getting up, and getting him the water, and finding him curled up in her bed, snuggled against her favorite teddy bear, back and sound asleep.

But now she walked over too him. He was too big, too proud, to come and ask for water now. So as he woke up with a scream, she sat on his bed, and cradled his head in her arms, and told him that it would be okay, that she was here, and that it was safe.

"… Jazz?" the small voice asked.

"Yeah, Danny?"

"Would you… just maybe… get me a drink of water?"

Her face quirked into half of a smile. "Sure, just don't fall asleep with Mr. Wilkens, again."

He gave a small chuckle – he did remember.

"I won't. I promise."

She smiled, and left, and returned to find him sleeping.

So she left the glass of water on his nightstand, in a patch of gold from the streetlamp, next to the clock that was a few minutes faster than hers with its digital red letters, and she covered him up, and ruffled his hair, and turned to go back to her room.

She lingered at the door, a moment, looking at her brother, and she smiled.

* * *

Dreams would come and dreams would go. 

Fears would turn and tremble.

But the sister's brother would still be here.

They would look out for each other. No matter what monsters stalked their dreams, no matter what their fears, because that is what they do.

They laugh and love, tease, taunt, cry, tug, and always seem to fight.

But in the end, they turn out friends, and everything comes 'round right.

* * *

**Please remember to review.**


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